British tabloid starts feud against Nintendo

Nintendo's got into a right little spat with British tabloid the Sun. Under the catchy headline "Nintendo 3DS is game for a barf", the paper claims that it's the most returned games console ever.

Yesterday, the Sun reported that stores were refusing refunds to thousands of disgruntled customers staggering in to complain of headaches and dizziness. Some are offering trade-ins, it says, and others nothing at all.

Nintendo moved quickly to deny the story.

"Recent reports are incorrect," it says in a statement. "The number of calls and emails with queries on Nintendo 3DS is in fact well below the rate experienced during past hardware launches and having spoken with our retail partners in the UK there are only a handful of people who have actually gone into stores to request a refund."

The Sun amended the online version of its story - but still didn't give up.

Today, it conducts a 'medical experiment' by giving a young man a 3DS and instructing him to play Street Fighter and Pro Evolution Soccer for two hours, with a couple of ten-minute breaks. He gets a headache and feels dizzy.

The doctor's verdict? "Children should not be left to play on it for hours."

Well, no. Nintendo's own advice to parents has always been that children under seven shouldn't use it in 3D mode at all. Everyone else, it says, should take a 30 minute break after every hour of play.